Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
Time is an interesting construct. We use the term to differentiate between the past, present, and the future. Time helps to keep our thinking in order.
Because Jesus is an eternal being, because he existed when the earth was created, his sense of time is very different than ours. To him, a thousand years are like a day. Yet, while he was here on earth a day was like a day. I can understand why the disciples would ask what he means by ‘a little while!’
If you are familiar with the Gospel story, you know that Jesus is talking about his impending death on the cross and the resurrection that follows. The disciples, however, do not know what is going to happen.
So what can we take away from this passage?
Jesus is truthful and Jesus sees the world from both a human perspective and God’s perspective. He knows what will happen before it happens. He wants to explain things to his disciples that they cannot comprehend. So, he uses a riddle to capture their attention and focus their minds on what he wants them to know.
Food for thought: How much does God know about your future? How much are you ready to know?
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While God knows every detail about my future, I am happy not to know such things. I can trust in His promises that I will be with Him when my time is over. In between those times and His promises and seeing those promises come to realization through the signs of the times and fulfilled biblical prophecy, I will leave mt personal future in His capable hands.
I second Rich’s motion. What mercy to not know all the details of the future while knowing that we win in the end.
Rich / JEC,
Thank you for your comments! Isn’t it interesting that not knowing the specifics of our future can be a blessing? Think of the burden that knowledge represented for Jesus while he was on earth. He was not spared knowing what was to come.